Sun-Times editor-in-chief retiring

The top editor at the Chicago Sun-Times is stepping down. Don Hayner, a 30-year veteran at the paper, announced his retirement Thursday after three years as editor in chief.

Publisher John Barron will return to the newsroom as executive editor, while Sun-Times CEO Timothy Knight will add the role of publisher.

"The Sun-Times has been, and always will be, like a second family to me," Hayner said in a statement. "I will miss everyone here and wish the Sun-Times continued success."

Hayner, a former Chicago Tribune reporter who started at the Sun-Times as a general assignment reporter in 1982, rose to become top editor there in February 2009. Going into bankruptcy in his first year at the helm, the paper emerged under new ownership -- a group headed by the late James Tyree -- and won a Pulitzer Prize for local reporting in 2011.

His retirement comes four months after Wrapports LLC, an investor group led by technology entrepreneur Michael Ferro and former Newsday Publisher and CEO Timothy Knight, acquired the Sun-Times with an eye toward leveraging digital capabilities.

The flagship newspaper has also been noticeably changing in recent weeks, with a more sensational tabloid approach including large front pages photos of everyone from Kim Kardashian to the cast of "Mob Wives Chicago," a controversial reality TV show slated to air this summer on VH1.

Barron, who joined the Sun-Times as a reporter in 1995, has held leadership positions ranging from features editor to general manager, and was named publisher in November 2009.

"John is uniquely suited to help us move the Sun-Times forward," Knight said in a statement. "He intimately understands what we need in the paper each and every day to serve our readers and grow our audience."